With the last of his trusted companions having fallen, Drizzt is alone - and free - for the first time in almost a hundred years. Guilt mingles with relief, leaving Drizzt uniquely vulnerable to the persuasions of his newest companion: Dahlia, a darkly alluring elf and the only other member of their party to survive the cataclysm at Mount Hotenow. But traveling with Dahlia is challenging in more ways than one.

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With the last of his trusted companions having fallen, Drizzt is alone - and free - for the first time in almost a hundred years. Guilt mingles with relief, leaving Drizzt uniquely vulnerable to the persuasions of his newest companion: Dahlia, a darkly alluring elf and the only other member of their party to survive the cataclysm at Mount Hotenow.

But traveling with Dahlia is challenging in more ways than one. As the two companions seek revenge on the one responsible for leveling Neverwinter - and nearly Luskan as well - Drizzt finds his usual moral certainty swept away by her unconventional views. Forced to see the dark deeds that the common man may be driven to by circumstance, Drizzt begins to find himself on the wrong side of the law in an effort to protect those the law has failed. Making new enemies, as his old enemies acquire deadly allies, Drizzt and Dahlia quickly find themselves embroiled in battle - a state he's coming to enjoy a little too much.

Even better then the first book in this series. Drizzt and Dalia really come to work with each other and a 'blast from the past' joins them! what a surprise for me when we found out who Barabbas is. There is never a boring moment in Drizzt's life, and this book is no exception. The action was, as always, fantastic! But, more importantly, with the loss of his friends, Drizzt is really thinking about the why of his life. I think Mr. Salvatore is setting the stage for an even more epic Drizzt adventure when this series is finished. Can't wait to listen to the third book and find out the fate of Barabbas!

Wow, beginning with Guntelgrym you get the impression RA Salvatore suddenly decided that perhaps the forgotten realms should be opened to more than a few teenage geeks. No offence, but the sanitary nature of his earlier books, although all well written, left most of us adult wandering what sort of passionless world these characters inhabited.

The lack of adult situations and interactions left it feeling entirely to ...antiseptic. Forcefully antiseptic. Now, with these last series of books, it seems as though RAS has discovered that there is room for an adult audience for these books. Drizzt is not just a one directional, unsurprising and rather unchallenging character, but a multi faceted gem being cut into dazzling brilliance by each physical, emotional and even (and I hate this word personally) spiritual conflict. With each of these cuts you see a deeper more mature side of teh already prolifically introspective fighter. In these last series of books You are seeing real growth through conflict in these complex and deeply interwoven interludes of Drizzt , all soo well written and narrated within each of these books, but the growth within seems to truly begin with Guntelgrym.

With the introduction of Dahlia and the death of the companions, you start to see Drizzt truly maturing. With Dahlia as part of the inspiration for most of his ongoing development perhaps a bit later in life than would have been reasonable for some one of such philosophical ruminations as we have come to read in these books. Perhaps its his heritage as one of these eternally aging beings that they are cursed with an equally aged maturity curve. How else can one explain taking 100 years after 20 to come to the realization that black and white is not always so. Maybe it is just Dahlia. Whichever it is, its a great change from fighting without growth.

I applaud RAS for taking the risk of alienating some of the family-friendly-or die purist by writing more realistic stories that are not overly adult (no 50 shades of Durden here - sorry to disappoint) that maintained some of the fantasy and magic that keeps us hungry for more. The return of "Barabas the gray" and its link to the prior stories is also a great plot twist that I thoroughly enjoyed. Enemies become friends and friends become enemies, just great stuff.

If you haven’t read The previous books in the series, please do, and then compare to the series beginning with Guntylgrym and you will see a marked difference. In those later stories, especially in this one our dear Drizzt is doing that which we all want from our most cherished friends or even family. He is growing up.

**On a side note, I wander if fight club’s Tyler Durden is related to Drizzt Durden :)

The story was good. I began reading Salvatore's Forgotten Realms stories more than 20 years ago. It's nice to see characters mature.

But in an age when Game of Thrones can create and kill more characters than exist in all Faerun - and get us to love many of them along the way - the limited number of characters makes it important that their development through dialogue be perfect. it isn't. the dialogue needs to improve.

i would recommend reading it yourself. a decent book (though definitely not salvatore's best) if you can ignore the different format than all his other Drizzt books (a lot of jumping around, bunny trails that get forgotten about, a denoumont that seems to last forever), but it does at least have an ending, and there are many good parts. i feel the need to campaign against every audio book that is read by Victor Bevine, though. every book of his has me gritting my teeth, rolling my eyes, & taking deep breaths to calm my agitation. this idiot not only mispronounces a few common words (that are frequently used), but his voices for almost all the the numerous characters is the same talentless ridiculous attempt: the stereotypical big dumb henchman. yeah, that doesn't work for most of the characters... at all. sometimes he really pours it on, and i literally have to stop whatever it is i am doing to either laugh out loud or clench my fists in irritation. and what he really does the worst is try to sound out laughter. "bwahahaha" is NOT, I REPEAT NOT MEANT TO BE PRONOUNCED LIKE AN EXOTIC FIRST NAME. AND "bah" is NOT MEANT TO BE USED LIKE THE TITLE "mom". how wonderful it is, then, that Salvatore uses those two iterations CONSTANTLY THROUGHOUT THE LAST 7 BOOKS!!! AND WE HAVE TO SUFFER THROUGH THIS IMBECILE HACK as he murders almost every bit of character dialogue in the entire series!!! WHO KEEPS HIRING THIS GUY?!?!?! STOP!!! listen to some of his work, first. he DOES have a great speaking voice, when he is just reading the action, so he would make a great narrator for a romance novel, perhaps, but not for anything fantasy or sci-fi, or anything that has unusual or boisterous character work.

Another great book from Savatore. Following on from book one is no mean feat. As a long time reader and listener of the Dark Elf books this one didn't disappoint. Quite slow to start but with patience comes reward. Ill leave the storyline to the synopsis. But definitely worth the read / listen. Another note for the audiobook listeners I found the reader interesting and he brought the characters alive with different voices and emotion was communicated very well. And was not the usual droning on and on while reading words from a page. Once again a good book and a good audio book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Matthew

7/5/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Awesome!"

This second chapter reveals a past favourite character returned adding more twists than a coiled spring! The fight scenes are as vivid as ever and the ever evolving storyline just keeps you hooked!

Brilliantly narrated by Victor Bevine this is another one of the great R A Salvatore's work!! :-)

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Linzie

NEWARK, United Kingdom

8/17/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Didn't want to put this down!"

Great 2nd book in the series. The story is gripping and you are taken through a multitude of emotions as it progresses. As ever, the characters are voiced brilliantly, the narrator really giving the story and extra dimension. Fans of Dungeons and Dragons will not be disappointed.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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